Linux Compatibility

Both radeon open-source and fglrx drivers work correctly under Ubuntu 10.10

Sound

Works w/ issues

Works, but experience issues with clipping/stuttering. Modifications to pulseaudio config are necessary - appears to be a bug with the ALSA driver

Ethernet

Works

A bug, assumed to be in the kernel, loads the tg3 module before the broadcom module. To fix, either create a startup script that unloads tg3/modprobe's broadcom/modprobe's tg3 in that order. See below.

Wireless

Works

Bluetooth

Works

Modem

Not Tested

USB

Works

Card Reader

Works

ExpressCard Slot

Not Tested

Webcam

Works

TV tuner

Does not work

The ATI/Yuan Yuan T507 mini PCI-e DVB-T tuner/capture card (1002:ac12, subsystem 12ab:0003) sold with this laptop in the M29BAGE fitting is not supported on Linux 2.6.37 and earlier.

Notes

You can enter any specific notes with running Linux on the Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 here.
If your ethernet port does not function on boot, it can be related to a bug found in the order the modules are loaded in the kernel. For a quick-fix script:

Tools & Workarounds

It is suggested to have a kernel >=2.6.34

Ethernet

modprobe -r tg3
modprobe broadcom
modprobe tg3

place that in /etc/rc.local and save. Notice that newer kernels do not have this problem (2.6.34<)

Wireless

Pre 9.10 (9.04 and below) Ubuntu distributions have too old of wifi microcode to operate the radio correctly.
You'd get something similar to this from dmesg:

Graphics

Any linux kernel >=2.6.33 with modern ATI graphics drivers (catalyst 10.8 and newer) should be able to function correctly.

Overclocking

Sadly, this ATI chip (Redwood series) is not overclockable, (Without flashing the graphics BIOS). I strictly DO NOT advise you to flash the graphics BIOS, unless you are completely sure you know what you're doing. You'll end up with a server-for-a-laptop, if you mess up.

Intel i-series CPU hyperthreading

The new feature (And one of the cool ones) is that you can turn on and off threads and cores of the CPU whilst booted.
i7z is an advanced CPU monitor, measuring CPU usage, percentage of the chip actually being used, turboboosted clockings, etc. Download and compile i7z ( Homepage: https://code.google.com/p/i7z/ ), and install it if you want ( sudo make install ).

You notice a two files: put_cores_offline.sh and put_cores_online.sh
If you ever played with stuff in /sys/ before, most likely, you know which is what goes where.
The similarity between them is echo # > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu#/online
The first four cpus (0 - 3) are the actual cores, or the first thread of the core, the last 4 (4 - 7) are the hyper threads.

(Make sure you're root)

echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu7/online

This turns off hyperthreading for the fourth core, making you have 7 threads on.

echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu7/online

Turns it back on

Again cpus, 0 - 3 are the cores/first threads, 4 - 7 are the hyper threads.
*note turning off 7 of the 8 threads makes your lappy a single core. Possibly a huge power saver if you force the CPU clock to not go into turboboost (Make the cpu clock anything at the adjustable range).
For that install cpufreq-applet ( sudo apt-get install cpufreq-applet ).

Summary

You can enter a summary of how well the Lenovo IdeaPad Y560 works with Linux here.

The only things that don't work on my Y560 are some of the function keys (touchpad toggle on fn+f6 and monitor switch on fn+f3) and the extra buttons for camera and battery and that slidy thingy above the keyboard, which is to be expected since it's vendor specific hardware that no one's going to bother writing a module for.

I don't have switchable graphics (those are a pain on Linux I'm told).

I found quite poor battery and ATi graphics performance in Fedora 15. The graphics was quite glitchy and battery life reduced by upto 100% - Lenovo's windows power application is quite powerful and appears to have control over the battery at a hardware level.

While it is still useable, the performance benefits outweigh the benefits of Linux on my laptop.

pietro, 2011/03/25 17:09

i have lenovo Y560 with i3 procesor and switchable graphics…but when i install ATI drivers from amd.com so after restar “black screen” :(after aticonfig –initial -fxorg.confSection “ServerLayout”

@diesseitsdid you installed the ati propietary driver provided by ubuntu or did you downloaded it fron amd/ati website?. I have tried to install it following different guides/how to's but none have worked for me.

I also have a problem with the cooling fan, it is at max speed ALL the time and the laptop gets very hot nevertheless.(sorry for my bad english)

jason, 2011/02/02 17:59

Two problems I've noticed:1. Does not properly detect my hdmi monitor resolution when I plug it in. I have to plug the monitor in, then log out of gnome, then log back in for it to recognize the best resolution.

2. This laptop does not suspend reliably. It probably freezes 3 out of 4 times I close the lid or initiate suspend from the gnome panel even under the latest kernel.

sreejit, you need to do a CD check. It's very possible that your cd is corrupt, not the install.

casper911ca, 2010/11/30 07:14

I successfully installed Ubuntu 10.04 (which I promptly upgraded to 10.10 using the command ”update-manager -d”)on the Lenovo Y560 740QM cpu. BUT, there was a bit of finagling I had to do. I discovered that if I installed directly, without “try ubuntu” first, it would not recognize the keyboard, and even then it sometimes does not register.

I booted Ubuntu 10.04 [64 bit] off the disk with “try ubuntu.” Once booted into the desktop off the disk, I opened up gedit or another program to test if it registers the keyboard. After verifying that the keyboard is recognized, I went ahead in clicked the “Install Ubuntu” icon and everything ran smoothly - ubuntu was installed in about 20 minutes or so. If it did not recognize the keyboard I restarted the computer and tried again, it worked on the second try for me. I manually partitioned my disk, 8gb swap (double ram) and a 230 GB root partition, leaving ~200G for Windows.

diesseits, 2010/11/23 05:04

sreejit,

Could you give more information about a) where the Ubuntu 10.10 install fails and b) what type of corruption happened to the windows partition (i.e., what happens when you try to boot windows?)

I bought the same laptop and have had an easy time getting Ubuntu 10.10 up and running; so far everything seems to work including the ATI drivers. Perhaps you came a cropper during disk partitioning?

-d

sreejit, 2010/11/21 05:32

hi alli have lenovo y560 with the i7 processor ,4GB ram , 1Gb ATI graphics , with preinstalled window 7 , so far all my attempts to install debian lenny and ubuntu 10.10 have gone dud , the debian 64 dvd refuses to boot , and ubuntu just does not get installed completly, although i managed to install ubuntu from within windows , the end result , windows partition also get corrupted , kindly helpsreejit

CliffordS, 2014/01/24 22:31

You must first change a setting in BIOS Startup to make the Optical drice (DVD) start first. You will then be able to start up from the DVD.

Name:

E-Mail:

Enter your comment. Wiki syntax is allowed:

Please fill all the letters into the box to prove you're human.Please keep this field empty: